


Runs on Happy Faces

by saratogaroad



Series: Crystalline Shards [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 01:09:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11220099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saratogaroad/pseuds/saratogaroad
Summary: Regis paid her to get the kid--his son, because she can see the resemblance in his face to the aging King of Lucis--and she's going to get the kid.Without a word, with barely a sound, she bends down to scoop him up. He half-turns, the limp move of motion affecting sleep and--And that's a knife. Coming for her face.





	Runs on Happy Faces

Tenebrae is quiet. Almost too quiet, Aranea thinks to herself as she silently stalks down a darkened hallway within Fenestala Manor. The area has been under Imperial control for the past five years, but there's only a handful of MT's in the Manor itself. 

It feels like a trap. Or a prison that doesn't need guards.

Considering that it's under Imperial control and the only one who could actually rule is twenty years old and completely unprepared, it's probably the latter. Not many places resist the Empire anymore, and Tenebrae isn't one of them.

But Lucis is, and there's royal gil in her coffers tonight, with more promised if she can complete her mission.

Aranea Highwind always completes her missions.

If nothing else, it's practice for stealth. On near silent feet--a real feat considering she's in full armor--she slips down the hall and towards the residential quarters, exactly where King Regis said they would be. It's darker here, shadows broken by streams of silvery moonlight, but it's also even quieter.

Whatever MT's are in this place, they don't patrol down through the halls between rooms. Small miracles, as it lets her slip into a room and shut the door behind her. Moonlight paints everything in stark shadows, but it's a lavish room fit for a prince. Plush carpet muffles her boots as she steps towards the bed, and the teen beneath its covers.

He's asleep, his back to the door, and on silent feet she pads over. Her eyes have adjusted to the dim blue light from outside already, and she can see the lump he is beneath the summer-thin covers. He's skinny, almost too skinny. Something twists in her stomach and she stomps on it; Regis paid her to get the kid--his son, because she can see the resemblance in his face to the aging King of Lucis--and she's going to get the kid.

Her sympathy and sudden need to punch the Imperial Commander in charge of this place can wait. 

Without a word, with barely a sound, she bends down to scoop him up. He half-turns, the limp move of motion affecting sleep and--

And that's a knife. Coming for her face.

Aranea grabs the kid by the wrist and twists, and to his credit he barely hisses in pain as this drops the knife to the bed, but that hiss may as well have been a bomb going off because the dog--why is there a _dog_ she doesn't like dogs!--on the foot of his bed jumps up like she just gave it a jolt and it _snarls_ at her. She snarls right back, still holding the kid, and it starts _barking_. The kid looks at her, looks at the dog, then opens his mouth and shouts--

"Ravus-!" She clamps a hand over his mouth because the damn kid's got good lungs, but it's too late. A connecting door swings open across the room, clattering against the wall

"Noctis!" A girl yells, white nightgown and blond hair streaming out behind her, glowing in the moonlight as she runs to the bed, and a second dog--Six damn this place why are there dogs?!--leaps onto the mattress to snarl with its partner. 

"Unhand him!" A boy shouts, running in with sword in hand, barefeet slapping on marble floor, and Aranea almost lets go and runs right then.

But she's been paid, and she's not the best for no reason. She turns her glare from the dogs to the kids.

"Will you three shut up!" Aranea hisses, grabbing at her pouch. She tosses it at the oldest head in the room, the blonde one--Ravus, probably, Ravus Nox Flueret, barefoot and in his nightclothes--and he catches it. Almost rips it open before a necklace falls from it that he scambles to catch. His eyes go wide.

"This is--"

The family crest of the Lucis Caelum dangles on a thin chain, catching the moonlight. The dogs stop snarling. Ravus looks at her, his little sister looks at her, and the boy, oh, the boy.

His eyes go wide and round with hope. He looks at her.

"...Father sent you?" He whispers, as if he doesn't dare believe the truth in front of him. He's lucky, Aranea thinks, that Regis Lucis Caelum really did send her and she didn't just have a copy of their crest made up in some back alley jeweler. He'd get eaten alive out there.

"He paid me to get you," She says, letting go of his wrist. "And I'm not leaving without you, so we're going."

The dogs snarl. She turns her glare back on them, but they're not looking at her. They're looking at the door. She turns and that's when two MT's slam into the room, door rattling off marble walls. Ravus stares with wide-eyes, sword in hand but useless without the will behind it, and Aranea leaps. There's no room in here to use her favored techniques, but the MTs are slow, dumb, and useless in close quarters. She grabs them by their heads and slams them to the ground, metal caving against marble. Black bile oozes out of their faceplates in a manner that still disgusts her, but she doesn't give it a thought as she stalks back to the bed.

"We're leaving!" She says instead, reaching for Noctis. The girl--Lunafreya, blood of the Oracle, seventeen and far too young for this shit--reaches for her at the same time.

"His wheelchair--"

"Screw the chair!" Aranea grunts, picking Noctis up with a soft yelp from the boy. He's skinnier than she thought, one leg limper than the other, and she's not sure if it's pain or surprise that drives the sound out of him, but he wraps both arms around her shoulders and he's got a good grip. She's actually just a little surprised; for a pampered prince, he's strong.

"Wait--Luna!" He turns in her grip, looks at the Tenebraen royalty, and Aranea grits her teeth. She shakes her head, looks at the twin heads of blond, and gestures sharply with her chin.

"Move it or lose it, blondie!"

For being woken up at ass o'clock in the morning, the kids are sharp. They exchange a look, weighing the options with what seconds they can spare, but something must convince them not to be martyrs because Ravus leaps the bed and Lunafreya goes around it, calling for the dogs in old names as they slide out the door and into the hall. Bare feet slap against cold stone as they all run back the way Aranea came, the dogs running at their six. Lights are flaring on, shouts echo from behind them as the Manor staff wake with the chaos and realize the Manor's been breached.

Beneath her helm, Aranea smiles. The emptiness of the halls works in their favor, and when they turn a corner Aranea swears half the hallway behind them is coated in _ice_ but they reach her airship, docked in the shadows of the lowest port into the Manor, just as the alarms begin to go off.

"Take us up!" She shouts to Biggs and Wedge, setting Noctis down against the wall. The dogs fall across his legs as Lunafreya kneels at his side, nightgown billowing around her ankles while Aranea joins Ravus at the hatch. MTs have caught up and are preparing to open fire, before ice cold wind flows around them. Aranea watches with wide eyes and frosting breath as snow--in the middle of the Six-damned _summer_ \--rushes down the hallway. Lunafreya looks up, bright blue eyes warm, and she squeezes Noctis' hand. 

The hatch closes. The ship lifts off into the night.

When she turns around, Aranea isn't surprised to see tears streaming down Noctis' face. She pulls off her helmet, lightly toes his better leg as she walks past, and smirks when he looks up at her.

"Careful, kid. This ship runs on happy faces."

\---

When they arrive at Insomnia, dawn is breaking. Wedge had nearly blown the engine block just getting them back to Lucis controlled territory, but Aranea's not too concerned. The Empire's never going to hire her again, not after today, so Lucis is a good enough place to stay.

Somehow, despite the wet dog smell in her ship, she can't bring herself to mind.

Biggs lands the ship with all the grace he's got, a good deal more than his partner, and the hatch hisses open in the Citadel Courtyard. King Regis is already there, suit rumpled and hair askew, his trusted guard a step back and to the right in the dim morning light. Aranea turns to say something to Noctis, but the boy is on his feet and hobbling towards the ramp the hatch has become.

She's got half a mind to pick him up and carry him the rest of the way but the King gets there first, all but _running_ into the ship, and then it's a moot point as she stands back.

Despite his own cane, Regis takes Noctis into his arms and cradles his head, clinging to the boy as if swearing to never let him go again. Aranea has heard many a man break in her days, but the sound that comes out of Regis' throat will stay with her for years to come. His son's name is a prayer, a blessing, a benediction, a mantra with how many times Regis repeats it.

And then Lunafreya walks up and the prayer starts anew, Regis reaching out to pull the girl, the young woman, the _Oracle_ of Eos into his arms, and she lets him. She hugs him, hugs Noctis, while Ravus and Aranea stand watch in the brightening sunlight.

**Author's Note:**

> [Prompt](https://ffxv-kinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/3451.html?thread=3300731#cmt3300731). Yes that was Gentiana-Shiva helping her charges escape, yes Aranea never gets all the dog fur out of her ship. (also yes; snarky KH reference was snarky.)


End file.
